An Art education project with a Chinese child born in the year of the Dragon. 2013 was the year of the dragon- As the symbol of Chinese nation, dragon represents authority and good fortune. People born in the year of the Dragon are powerful, kind-hearted, successful, innovative, brave, healthy courageous and enterprising. Perfect characteristics for ambassadors of environmental changeChina's huge plastic footprint is as big as a dragon! China was responsible for nearly 30 per cent of the plastic pollution clogging the world's oceans.The environmental and health impacts of China's unregulated plastic recycling business were immense: the cleaning process pollutes waterways, melting and burning the scraps released toxic pollutants into the air, and leftover pieces unfit for recycling were dumped directly into riverbedsAsia, and China specifically, are contributing so much waste to the ocean for a number of reasons:

An Exploding Population – China’s waste system was simply not designed for the level of scalability necessary to cope with the levels of waste produced by China’s rapidly growing population.

Changing Consumer Habits – Average incomes and purchasing power are increasing across the nation. Individuals are consuming at a higher rate, especially products involving plastic.

Attitudes Towards Waste – General attitudes, especially in more rural areas, tend to not place value on proper waste disposal.

Waste Collection – Much of the waste is not even collected in the first place, with estimates going as far as to say only 40% of all waste is collected. And even when collected, it is estimated that as much as 10% disappears between collection and dump sites.

Landfill Management – Many of China’s landfills, much like the nation’s population, are located along the coast and waterways. Even after the waste makes it to these sites, mismanagement and poor maintenance leads to much of this waste being swept into the water through wind and rain.

We can see that this problem is only growing, with China estimated to more than double its annual output of plastic waste by 2025.Working towards a real solutionPlastic waste is very much an international problem, but targeting the main five contributors, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and especially China would help to reduce global plastic waste runoff by as much as 45% over the next ten years.The Ocean Conservancy discusses some of the viable options for reducing our plastic debris runoff in the future. In general, there are some major steps that must be taken to reduce the debris in our oceans:

Short Term – We need to first develop basic waste collection infrastructure and cut down on waste leakage in transportation and landfills. Waste treatment only starts to become truly efficient and profitable when working at scale. This entails collaboration between the private and public sector to properly incentivize this change.

Medium Term – The implementation of commercially viable waste treatment processes must come next. This includes increased recycling infrastructure to capture the more valuable sections of the plastic waste stream. Besides recycling, using other conversion processes to turn the plastic waste into fuel, such as through gasification, or into energy, such as through incineration, is a viable way to really cut down on plastic waste leakage.

Long Term – To truly reach long term, sustainable plastic waste solutions, we must change how we use plastic and what types of plastic we use, as well as the processes used in its treatment and recovery. This means a combination of regulations and incentives to galvanize the private sector into real change.

These steps, when taking together and with long-term vision, have the ability to stem the problem of plastic pollution. Not only that, but they will bring us closer to the principles of the circular economy that truly allow for value to be utilized out of the waste stream. This, of course, requires all of the various stakeholders to work together to create the incentives necessary for this to happen.With real solutions such as these, we can continue to enjoy the benefits of plastic use whilst working to maintain the health of the environment and iterate to develop better future solutions.

We learnt about:

Plastic use and plastic pollution in China

How plastic pollution effects the environment and how we change that for the better

How human pollution, culture and development can effect wildlife populations and habitats

Creating large scale art work with a message that will get people talking about environmental change

Making art from recycled materials

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